Anniversary Countdown

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Photo montage of our busy (yet fun) Thanksgiving weekend

All the clothes we are donating to the Salvation Army so we could organize our closet.
New floor level organization

Jay's side (the smallest size)


New!



The beginning of my side, it's all color coded, love it!





And gifts! Lots of shopping and wrapping of presents! FUN!





Jay's Birthday Pics at Fuddruckers

Amanda & Max
Bryan & Holly


Holly & Leta

Leta & Jay




There is a reason they call it Black Friday.

On Wednesday Jay saw an ad for a flat panel TV he just had to have. On Thursday at Thanksgiving, Jay somehow convinced his parents to buy said TV with their credit card.

The catch?

We had to take their credit card and fight the mobs ourselves to purchase this TV on *gasp* Black Friday. I tried to get out of it, I really did. Jay said I would have to go.

So yesterday morning, Black Friday, we pulled ourselves out of bed at 4:30am. Absolute torture for me to begin with, I hate mornings. Oh and we woke up a bit late too so we were rushing.

We made it to Wally World right at 5am (when their sales started) and the parking lot was completely full. I looked at Jay and said, there is no way we are getting this TV.

We tried anyway.

I don't know what I was expecting? Whenever we go to Wal-Mart now, it is always ridiculously busy so I guess I expected just a bit more. NO HU-WAY! As we walked through the front doors, total shock and awe. With what I witnessed, I think people were one step away from brawling, bread lines in Moscow during the Cold War style.

I should have brought a gun. If not for protection, but for crowd control.

The main aisles were completely clogged. People were just standing their with their shopping carts, unable to move at all.

I'm a really impatient person so this didn't sit well with me. Our advantage was that we did not have a cart as they were out (yeah, somehow Wal-Mart ran out of carts) so we were able to zig and zag. Somehow, the crowds became more dense the closer we got to the electronics section.

We looked futilely for a while in electronics and all we managed to do was get more tangled into the large crowd. THEN, we saw a guy with a cart that had two of the TVs we were looking for. Because we had no where else we could go, we waited for him to inch closer to us so we could find out where he had found them.

He informed us that they were all located in the food section. You, tell me how much sense that makes? TVs in the food section?

We finally found them after a lot of short cuts and pushing and shoving and Jay got his TV! :) Lines were then long checking out because everyone decided in this economy that it was wise to purchase multiple TVs. I saw some people who had bought one of each size of flat panelled TVs that Wal-Mart had to offer.

Truly crazy. Yet strangely exhilarating for me. Maybe I should take up hunting?

It all ends well though, afterwords we went to the mall and found that the style of Coach bags that I have always wanted were on sale! Looky looky, we both got our Christmas presents!

All in all a good day, what an experience!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Girls Night Out! :)

So my friend Danielle has her birthday in December and she just got a new job so we decided to celebrate! Ladies Night Out at The Melting Pot, a four course taste bud extraordinaire!

To accomplish this however, there was the issue of the kids. I love Gabriel and Dinah but I don't think The Melting Pot is conducive to small children. I'm seeing third degree burns and an unhappy ending.

Luckily, my dirt phobic, child fearing, dirty diaper avoiding husband VOLUNTEERED to watch both the kiddos so Danielle and I could go out to dinner.

We began the night at the Johnson's home so I could pick up and Danielle and drop Jay off. Danielle had put Dinah to bed to that Jay wouldn't have to 'deal' with her. She is 1 and I think that age scares Jay just a bit so all he had to do was keep Gabriel happy for the night.

During the appetizer portion of our meal I received a text saying that Dinah would not stop crying in her room. During the salad portion of our meal I received a text saying Gabriel was now going commando. By the entree portion of our meal I had received a text saying Dinah was downstairs with the two of them because even the milk we had told him to give her was not making her happy. And finally at dessert, we received the appetizing message that Dinah was 'stinky'.

For fun, I told him to look down the back of her diaper to see if he saw some poop.

By the time we got back to Danielle's house, everything was perfect. Dinah was crawling happily on the floor, Gabriel was sitting in front of the TV watching SpongeBob and Jay was sitting on the couch with a full head of hair!

Nothing to it! :)

We were so grateful to Jay that he did this for us and that he got out of his own comfort zone so we could have some alone time. It was wonderful! AND, he even volunteered to do it again sometime!

Maybe next time Jay can graduate to changing diapers as when we got home, Dinah was still 'stinky' and Danielle got to instruct Jay (by doing it herself) on how to change a dirty diaper.

Ah bliss!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Today is Tuesday. :(

Next week is Thanksgiving! Luckily my company does not work on Friday after Turkey Day so I made Jay take that day off too, especially since all of his siblings are in town. I am so looking forward to next week and not working.

Because I did not want to work on Wednesday either, I've been working extra this week so I will not have to do so. However, that means when I stop typing here, I must go sit at my computer and dutifully write some reports. :( I have 3 reports due today and 2 due tomorrow. On Thursday night I figured out that if I succeed in my plan of not working on Wednesday, I must work Friday (yesterday) thru Tuesday as my full work week.

Which in truth, makes today Tuesday if next Tuesday is Friday for me. Sigh. It's very depressing but I'm trusting it will be worth it on Wednesday and my LONG weekend! :)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

You never can tell....

So in my job I have had a lot of weird things happen to me. I've met a guy who now lives in DC who was the tennant right before me in a house on the North Shore of Hawaii (don't ask me how we figured that out!) and then last week sometime I was on Quantico and saw an MP that I had worked closely with on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base in Hawaii. It always make you feel like it is a small world!

Anyway, last week I was again on Quantico at a tightly secured location and after proceeding through 3 bouts of security I finally get to the front desk/receptionist who has me sign my life away to be in the building (just kidding, I only got strip searched....okay, that's a lie too....). She then calls the person I am there to see and after a quick wait the woman I am waiting for comes to find me.

Now, to be fair this situation is partial my fault I guess. When I go talk to people on my daily basis in my job, I refer to these meetings as interviews. And they are for all intents and purposes, interviews. So this woman comes up to me and asks me if I am there for the interview and I respond with a yes and are you Ms. So-and-So? She responds yes and ushers me into to the basement of this particular facility. She then walks me into a room full of several people and I turn to walk back out as, clearly, I am in the wrong area. Oh and the lady does not follow me.

I'm thinking, hey lady, I'm here to talk to your sorry butt, you can't pass me off to other people!

They are all staring at me with big smiles expecting me to sit down.

It dawns on me.

I am interviewing for a new job and I don't even know it.

Instead of finding out whether this job is better than my current job and just stealing the employment interview, I fess up. When I let them know that there has been some kind of mistake, we all have a good laugh and I head back to security upstairs.

And this is what makes me (along with all of that superfluous security) 20 minutes late to interview the real subject.

Who knew, my job is never the same every day and there is always some reason to laugh at myself. I'm still wondering why that lady who led me to the 'interview' said she was the person I was looking for, maybe she was just aiming to please, or more likely, hard of hearing.

Who knows what kind of job I could have ended up with if I had just played along!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Happy Birthday Jay!!!

Today is Jay's birthday! :) We are celebrating pretty much from now until Saturday! I am currently baking chocolate cake (yuck!, it's all his!) and cheesy enchiladas for dinner! Tomorrow Jay has the whole day off thanks to him doing a favor for his boss which is a blessing because work as been stressful for him lately. Friday, a few of our friends are getting together and we are having dinner at Fuddruckers and Saturday is dinner (possibly Outback) and a movie (the new James Bond movie) with his parents. Whew! I hope he has an enjoyable one!

I began volunteering at Bethany Christian Services today. They are a non-profit organization that provides adoption services. In Fredericksburg, Va (the only location in the country for this organization) they also offer crisis pregnancy counseling/ultrasounds and they are pro-life. It was a lot of information today but I think it will be good overall once I learn the ropes!

Yesterday was the consultation with my dentist regarding my tooth. To root canal or not root canal????

The dentist chose NOT! :)

YAY! It is all to prayer and mega doses of vitamins that I didn't have to have one. So happy and now I have a brand new tooth that feels fabulous!

Well, the cake smells done. Ta-ta for now!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Let it snow!

Okay, maybe not so much. But it did flurry here today. That never happens in Virginia in November, snow is for February in this state. But for some odd reason it did make me *happy* to see some snow. :)

I'm about to go see the dentist about my tooth. I had a temporary crown done in October and they had problems with the permanent crown which ended up irritating my tooth. The doctor orignially told me that I might have to get a root canal since it was swollen. However, with prayer and some mega doses of vitamins the pain has completely stopped. So here's to hoping THIS permanent crown fits and that there are no complications!

Stayed tuned for more edge of your seat updates!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Christmas Came Early...

So I'm (Leta) jumping back on the bandwagon of blogging. :) Our life is generally pretty boring so I'm going to have to generate something interesting from nothing! However, I can think of some family members who will be appreciative.

Jay (he will likely never write on this blog) is always telling me that my favorite holiday is my birthday (April 10th for those that don't know) which is closely followed by Christmas! I can't wait for Christmas, I simply love it. Here are a few things I love about Christmas (in no particular order):

1. Gingerbread Lattes from Starbucks
2. Snow (yes... snow.... I, Leta, loves snow at Christmas, AND CHRISTMAS ONLY)
3. Decorating!
4. Buying presents
5. General feeling of festivities and fun!
6. And last but not least, this truly and most importantly is the day our Savior was born

There are so many other things I love about Christmas but I'll save it and leave you on this first post with some pics of our already decorated apartment (I did it yesterday!). Luckily Jay lets me decorate as I please! :) Please note the wrapped presents under the tree.
P.S. How do I turn these pictures to the correct angles?